A house built for music

Sunset

Photo by Kelly Barrie

In the patting-our-own-back department, we’d like to reintroduce you to a house Sunset highlighted way back in 1969, when its modular design was the cutting edge of residential architecture. Although this redwood-and-glass house in L.A.’s Highland Park failed to spark the prefab revolution its designer (J. Lamont Langworthy) and backer (the Ford Motor Company) had clearly hoped for, it has become a cultural incubator of another kind: its current owner, jazz pianist Greg Reitan, lives, works, and records in the 780-square-foot space.

Photo by Kelly Barrie

The acoustics created by the rough-sawn redwood walls make it, he says, an ideal environment for recording intimate acoustic jazz. The proof? Three well-reviewed albums in three years.